


Functional Equivalence

by Yognautical (KiiKitsune)



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 20:18:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1150361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiiKitsune/pseuds/Yognautical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a unique mix of vanity and empathy that draws them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Functional Equivalence

Rythian loves Zoey. He really, truly does. And this, this thing he’s doing, is a betrayal of that. It’s a betrayal of a lot of things; he own personal morals chief among them. 

He sees himself in Nano, though. She’s clenched vengeance between her teeth. Magic and mistakes drip purple from her balled fists, and she wields her anger like the newly forged blade that it is.

Rythian has been looking for a mirror so long that he can’t help but be captivated by the reflection. 

What’s worse, perhaps, is that she knows nothing about the history of this world or the last. It makes it far too easy to put aside everything Zoey has built up in the hollow cavity of his chest. The catastrophe of his life is nothing but the dust that makes him; not burnt bridges to be paved over. His scars are memories Nano can’t share, and she doesn’t care to try. When she sees his fury she asks “who?” and not “why?”. It doesn’t matter that she works with Lalna and that Rythian would see the man dead. She’s wanted Lalna’s blood herself, on more than one occasion. In fact, that's the reason they meet. 

Nano escapes from Lalna's latest lunacy and stumbles across Rythian in her flight. Zoey and Teep are still back at the desert camp. He'd left for some time alone, though he finds he doesn't mind sharing it with Nano. Keeping her company isn't so different from keeping his own. 

He seeks her out for the second and the third meetings. On the fourth she pulls down his mask with her flux stained fingers and stares at the twisted flesh. He lets her look, and sees she recognizes the ugliness in herself too. 

They don’t kiss, but she pants against his ruined cheek as she fucks herself down on him. He grips her hips with the same pressure he imagines, on those nights when his vow of pacifism is crushed beneath the weight of his self-righteousness, putting on Lalna’s neck. She claws at his forearms, his chest, his back, the way she would Sjin’s face if she ever got close enough. It’s not even sex, really. The act is too raw and desperate. He can’t reconcile it with what he knows of making love. That, at least, he can reserve for Zoey.

Zoey’s kindness makes him better. Sometimes though, that isn't what he wants.


End file.
